Welcome! My name is Michael Gilday and I am a Short Track Speedskater from Yellowknife, NWT, Canada. I currently train at the National Training Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I've created this blog primarily to let family and friends know about competitions and travel. I also hope to educate a bit about short track and maybe even entertain. Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

After receiving a rather straightforward comment this morning from an anonymous poster asking me to update more often, I have decided to oblige Mr./Mrs. Anonymous and write a another blog update. Now since I just updated yesterday about the goings on of training, today will have nothing to do with skating and will somewhat continue my cycling trend.

Todays post will focus on two ads I came across on two different, but topic related blogs that I read from time to time. The two blogs are BikeSnobNYC and Fatcyclist. Both of these sites are cycling sites and I find them to be quite entertaining. But that isn't the point. I honestly doubt you care about hearing what types of blogs I find interesting. The point is that yesterday I was reading BikeSnobNYC (who happened to have posted about Fatcyclist that day) and noticed a World of Warcraft ad along the side bar.

For those of you who don't know what World of Warcraft (WOW) is, it is an online role playing game that requires paid monthly subscription and is (in my opinion and the opinion of several of my friends who play it) highly addictive and never ending. It is my opinion that this game consumes people and causes them to disappear into this alter-world for long periods of time with no communication with the real world. But I digress. After finishing with BikeSnobNYC, I checked out Fatcyclist and noticed a similar trend. As I scrolled down the page to read, I noticed another WOW ad, and then later, another ad that pushed an online gaming site called Perfect World International. This is another site that offers online role playing games.

What surprised me when I read this was the fact that WOW and others like it were being advertised on a blog that was primarily aimed towards those that are cycling enthusiasts, who I would think, are fairly active people that don't spend there lives in front of a computer screens. For me, this can be explained a few different ways. First, it could be that WOW is losing subscribers and is reaching long and far for new players. Or it could just be that these are randomly generated Google ads, although I was under the impression that Google matched up the type of ads with content, none of which involved online gaming. Or, I guess it could just be that my view is just plain wrong and that more cycling enthusiasts that I thought lead secret double lives online courtesy of one of these games...

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

No big long post today, just a list of accomplishments since my last post, which was written while I had a big fever.

- Kicked the flu- finished the last few days of the camp well, all health problems considered.- recovery- Two weekends of riding Highwood with Liam and also with Pate Neumann and Phil Wood the second time. (Pate you didn't get your legs ripped off, you were riding with a fruit-to-go wrapper keeping your tire inflated!)- two sets of mock races (including a nice little 41.2- ya handtimed but still)- a ton of Tour de France watching hours logged- beat a case of "Tour withdrawl" (sort of...)- couple of good mountain bike rides- enjoyed some nice weather on a couple patios- and oh ya...train train train